


Dead Money

by GeekyCountryFanboy



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Realistic, Road Trips, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-07 23:29:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14681724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeekyCountryFanboy/pseuds/GeekyCountryFanboy
Summary: The Vector happened and the government tried to cover it up, but that wasn't all that shocking. Now people try to live their lives, avoid getting turned, and maybe get rich along the way.





	1. Chapter 1

Around us the Hight Desert was picturesque, in the distance the mountains looked almost purple, closer to up the grey-green of the sagebrush went for miles, interspersed with the verdant green of hay, the pale gold of the dry native grasses, and the dull khaki of bare earth. Sporadically, gunfire split the air, usually the shots were preceded by a faint, wheezing moan.

The rapport of the guns didn't even turn my gaze from the digital camcorder, displaying an image of a stocky, raven haired woman, who, in the tradition of "Professional Amateur" action-vloggers everywhere, was poking something potentially life ending with a stick, or, in this case a boar spear. The thing she had pushing on the lugs of the spear, was labeled, both scientifically and politically, as  _Hostis Humani Generis_ , or the Enemy of Mankind, humans afflicted with the Vector, colloquially known as Geeks, Ghouls, Walkers, or Zombies.

No one really knows where the Vector came from, melting ice caps, meteorites, GMOs gone wrong, every scientist has a theory, so does every conspiracy theorist. The only thing that they know for sure is that it acts like a virus to infect a host, a cancer in a new host, sprouting tumorous masses around the central nervous system, and a fungus when the host is too damaged or decayed to actively hunt, lying in wait and bursting in a cloud of infectious spores when a host approaches.

As the ghoul snapped the haft of the spear I remembered another fact, the more you got together, the smarter the got. If this ugly son of a bitch was suddenly intelligent enough to go for the spear rather than Lizzie at the other end of it, that meant...

Shit.

I snapped the camera closed as Liz verbalized my thought, thankfully this one was old enough that it wasn't all that fast. This allowed Lizzy to backpedal long enough for me to get my forty-five out and squeeze two round into it, one center mass of the head and the other through the spinal cord. As I holstered by side arm I could hear the quad fire up, turning on my heel I hit the broadcast button on the walkie talkie, "Karlie, fire it up, we're coming in hot!"

 

Almost as an afterthought I pivoted back and collected the zombie's wallet, a little morbid, I know, but after the Vector and _Hostis Humani Generis_ became prevalent the U.N. unanimously passed a statute, any person that presented a valid form of identification, not their own, would inherited the person's wealth and assets after thirty days.

Shaking my head clear of errant thoughts, I mounted the ATV behind Lizzie, accepting the duck-billed shotgun she passed me. The half mile to the truck whipped by as a dozen hunting cries followed us. As soon as we had crested the break in the ramp I was leaping off the pull it up into it's locked position, the truck lurching forward as it slammed shut. From my elevated position I did a head count and broke into a sweat that had nothing to do with the heat, over the length of a football field almost fifty zombies stumbled and staggered forward as we drove away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is exposition about the characters.

The terrain was rough as we bounced and rocked over dusty dirt road, once we had gotten a mile or so between us and the pack we had gotten to our usual posts. Lizzie was some where in the back, likely downloading several hours of footage onto my lap top, Karlie riding shotgun, going through the handful of wallets we had managed to obtain in our last few outings, and me behind the wheel, side effect of being a local at one point, long ago.

Thankfully, aside from a few stragglers, easily brained by the reinforced door, adding more to our collection of IDs, there was no zombie presence as we pulled up through the once community of Venator, now little more than a reminder of the sedentary stage of the Vector. As we hit gravel, I smacked the radio's power, with only the barest crackle of static came an alert.

"A pack of thirty or more _Hostis_ have been spotted in the area of Venator, It is recommended that all civilians in the area make their way to the nearest fortified area."

"Well, no fucking shit." I couldn't help but chuckled at Karlie's retort, she didn't have much patience for redundancy, despite both Lizzie and I attempting to explain the purpose of such things.

"Relax, they're just doing their job, just because we were unlucky doesn't mean they aren't alerting someone else.."

As the country rolled by I hazard a glance at the other woman of our little trio. Karlie was some where between Liz and I in height, an lighter than either of us. With reddish blond hair and pale skin she was the fairest of us as well, though it wasn't hard to be fairer than me, thanks to some fluke of genetics I some how maintained a tan year round. She was also the other Action Vlogger of our group, you'd be amazed the number of people that will pop onto our site to watch a pair of women poke and prod the dead.

I still don't get the draw, that might be because for me it's another Tuesday and a handful of other problems that accompany every shoot. When they're in front of the lens I'm behind it, keeping our gear running in less then ideal conditions and making sure if some geeks suddenly get an instant brain boost it's only momentary. When I'm in front of the camera it's usually practical stuff, cooking, survival tips, handy craft, I even did a video on making bite armor out of carpet and duct tape.

On our right came the walls of Crane came into sight, built six foot wide round straw bales, stacked double, simple, effective, and easily repaired. The little town ship had fared well against the Vector, being so close knit, they managed to keep tabs of each other, in fact most small, rural communities had fared well, better than the big cities at least.

After the walls fell away behind us there came a fence of hog panels, spurring me to slow down and turn as the drive for Crystal Crane Hot Springs came up. The long sloping drive was fenced on either side and studded with pipe walled holes, small enough the wheels rolled over them, but wide enough that a foot would fall into it, turning a walker into an easy kill. The Springs were, before the vector, a tourist attraction, with locals occasionally popping in for a soak in the sulfurous waters, now they served as a base of operations for vloggers coming out to explore the remote areas of eastern Harney and western Malheur County.

As we pulled up to the hook up site, the girls started moving, hopping out to hook up the truck, though calling it a truck may have been a gross understatement. It was one of our first "Inheritances", it was only a truck in the sense that it still looked like one, in truth is was a bastard child of an RV and a toy hauler. The other's though I was nuts when I insisted we keep it, it wasn't until after we had made several modifications that they had agreed with me. Windows were now caged, the tires had been replaced with run-flats, what had once been an upper cargo deck was now a shooting platform with an access hatch to the cabin below, and what had once been an homage to a regular truck bed was a flat bed.

Once everything was settled in we changed into shorts and tank tops, the girls making their way to the pre-soak showers as I paid for a tub for three and collected the key. By the time I had made it to the bathhouses, they were out, their clothing clinging to their damp bodies, towels around their shoulders, as I passed off the key. The showers were simple affairs, intended entirely for function, not that I was complaining, the water easily rinsed the dust off me. Pulling my shorts on and bundling my top into the towel, I trotted down the porch to our room, it didn't surprise me a lick to see both Karlie and Lizzie's clothes bundled on the bench, nor did I hesitate to put my own garments beside them, we had long gotten over the taboo of nudity with each other, sharing a small space for prolonged periods of time meant making concessions on things like privacy.

As I stepped into the tub, almost groaning at the lovely heat on my knee, I sidled around to sit on the edge behind Karlie, knees to on either side of her shoulders. Threading my fingers though her hair, I carefully carded through, looking for ticks and the like, it was a pseudo tradition among us, I would check them over for parasites when ever we were back from an outing, then one of them would check me. Once I had finished with her head and neck I tapped her shoulder, getting her to rise with the unspoken request, once she was standing I checked her back side, legs and under her arms. Gently pulling at her hip illicited a turn, allowing me to check beneath her heavy breasts, her neatly trimmed thatch, and the juncture of her thighs. When I looked up at her she pointedly glanced at my lap and smirked.

"Oh, shut up." So they were beautiful women, any man with heterosexual tastes would be just as stiff in the same situation, I'm their business partner, I'm not dead. Ignoring the turgid protrusion of my groin I made my way to sit behind Lizzie, repeating my early actions, thankfully she was a bit more blaize about my arousal. 

When I had finished I slipped into the water as she sat behind me, pouring over my short hair as I let my self go on auto-pilot, only vaguely aware of standing as I lost my self in random thought. The only reason I came back to the present was because they had called my name, "Sorry, miles away, what was the question?"

"Do you want to continue all the way to Redmond tomorrow, or stick around here for a bit?" Lizzie asked, now sitting a third of the way around the tub, her legs stretched out over my own, one the slope of her left hip I could see the Shield Knot, on her right ribs the Web of Wyrd

"I know a few more places to poke around, but we should probably be getting back before our mail starts over-flowing." I looked between the two of them, before quickly adding a thought, "We'll stop at the county court house to file for our inheritances."

"So Central Oregon tomorrow, the valley after that." Karlie nodded as she spoke, her legs were cocked to the side and curled up close to her. Through the water I could see the Valkyrie Wings on her thigh, knowing there was a Web of Wyrd on her other thigh.

The sight of their ink made me think of my own, the _Vegvisir_ on my right shoulder and the Web of Wyrd below it, as well as the meaning behind them, the Web was the emblem we had chosen for out main site, _Welcome-to-Ragnarok_ , the other's represented out individual sub blogs, _Reavin'-Heathen_ for Liz, _Might-of-the-Valkyrie_ for Karlie, and _Surviving-Ragnarok_ for myself.

Our soak continued for some time mostly spent in a companionable silence, the water soothing our various aches and pains. I was the first to get out, some one had to edit today's footage, pressing a kiss to each of their heads before I toweled off and dressed, padding across the campgrounds to the truck.

I as soon as the door shut I stripped again, finding some boxers and a bottle of rum as I sat down, with my laptop, cutting and editing for several hours, grunting as Lizzie and Karlie came in. I may have stolen a glance at them as they changed into their sleepwear, boyshorts and a tank for Karlie, and a pair of my boxers and a jersey for Lizzie. I batted at them half heartedly as they both stole a shot, before they settled in to watch a movie. By the time I had finished and lowered the table into a bed they were both asleep in the back fold out.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an attempt to create something half way resembling a proper piece of fiction, so critiques and constructive criticism is welcomed.


End file.
